I'm playing on a marathon game with a high science multiplier, but am using the nanobots and junk rails mods to make things a little more livable for myself. As such, there's a sizable gap between rail and bots.

Would you mind adding a configuration option to enable this mod from the start of the game instead of being tech locked?

Hmm I don't know how many people use this kind of mod combination.

Instead, I suggest to you to unpack the mod zip file, then edit 'control.lua' file of that mod, and change "construction-robotics" to "automation" in line 786, 803 and 815. :)

If the button then still doesn't show up: save your game, deactivate my mod, load savegame, save again, reactivate my mod then load savegame.
This way the mod re-initializes.